Exploring the Black Box Technology, Economics, and History

This book presents a unique account of how technological change is generated and introduced into economic activity.

The process of technological change takes a wide variety of forms. Propositions that may be accurate when referring to the pharmaceutical industry may be totally inappropriate when applied to the aircraft industry or to computers or forest products. The central theme of Nathan Rosenberg's new book is the idea that technological changes are often 'path dependent', in the sense that their form and direction tend to be influenced strongly by the particular sequence of earlier events out of which a new technology has emerged. The book advances the understanding of technological change by explictly recognising its essential diversity and path-dependent nature. Individual chapters explore the particular features of new technologies in different historical and sectoral contexts. This book presents a unique account of how technological change is generated and the processes by which improved technologies are introduced.

List of figures; Preface; Introduction; Part I. Dealing With an Uncertain Future: 1. Path-dependent aspects of technological change; 2. Charles Babbage: pioneer economist; 3. Joseph Schumpeter: radical economist; 4. Technological innovation and long waves; Part II. Technology in Context: 5. Economic experiments; 6. Why in America?; 7. Can Americans learn to become better imitators?; 8. Critical issues in science policy research; Part III. Sectoral Studies in Technological Change: 9. Energy-efficient technologies: past and future perspectives; 10. Innovation in the chemical processing industries; 11. Telecommunications: complex, uncertain, and path-dependent; 12. Understanding the adoption of new technology in the forest products industry; 13. Scientific instrumentation and university research; Index.

This book presents a unique account of how technological change is generated and the processes by which improved technologies are introduced into economic activity. Individual chapters explore the particular features of new technologies in different historical and sectoral contexts.